AccScience Publishing / IJB / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/IJB026030020
Submit to IJB
Cite this article
49
Views
Journal Browser
Volume | Year
Issue
Search
Forthcoming Issue
Current Issue
View All
News and Announcements
View All
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Si–C covalent bonding-mediated interfacial charge transfer enhances photodynamic antitumor effects of selective laser sintered bone scaffolds

Bingxin Sun1† ,  Zhiheng Yu2† ,  Shuping Peng3 ,  Weifan Dai1 ,  Jiaxiang Wu1 ,  Guoyong Wang1* ,  Cijun Shuai1,4*
Show Less
1 Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Additive Manufacturing of Implantable Medical Device, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Jiaxing Nanhu University, Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China
3 The Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Cancer Invasion of the Chinese Ministry of Education of Xiangya Hospital and School of Basic Medical Science, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
4 State Key Laboratory of Precision Manufacturing for Extreme Service Performance, College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
†These authors contributed equally to this work.
IJB, 026030020 https://doi.org/10.36922/IJB026030020
Received: 12 January 2026 | Accepted: 3 March 2026 | Published online: 17 April 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue 3D Printing in Clinical Application)
© 2026 by the Author(s).. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Download PDF
XML
Cite
Abstract

Nitrogen-doped carbon dots (NCDs) show promising potential in photodynamic antitumor applications due to their appropriate band gap and photo-responsiveness. Nevertheless, their therapeutic efficacy is limited by both a low reactive oxygen species (ROS) quantum yield and their propensity for aggregation. Herein, NCDs were encapsulated within mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) to fabricate an effective photosensitizer (NCDs@MSN) via a one-pot hydrothermal method. The covalent Si–C bonds formed between NCDs and MSNs enhanced interfacial charge transfer, thereby substantially amplifying the generation of ROS under hypoxic conditions. Meanwhile, the mesoporous structure of MSNs prevented NCD aggregation and provided a larger accessible surface area with more exposed active sites. Electron spin resonance spectroscopy confirmed the light-triggered generation of ROS, validating its potent ROS generation capacity under hypoxia. Subsequently, NCDs@ MSN were incorporated into poly-L-lactic acid to fabricate a composite scaffold via selective laser sintering, which was designed for postoperative photodynamic management of tumorous bone defects. The resulting scaffold exhibited potent photodynamic cytotoxicity against tumor cells alongside excellent biocompatibility. This work presents a potential strategy for engineering intelligent implants to prevent postoperative tumor recurrence.

Graphical abstract
Keywords
Nitrogen-doped carbon dots
Photodynamic therapy
Scaffold
Antitumor
Selective laser sintering
Funding
This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant no.: 2023YFB4605800); the Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos.: U24A20120, 52475362, 52365046, 52465041); JiangXi Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos.: 20224ACB204013, 20252BAC240111); Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Additive Manufacturing of Implantable Medical Device (grant no.: 2024SSY11161); and Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education Science and Technology Project (grant no.: GJJ2200813). All funders have no influence on the study design, execution, data interpretation, or the content of the published article.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
References
  1. Abad-Montero D, Gandioso A, Izquierdo-García E, et al. Ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes containing COUBPY ligands as potent photosensitizers for the efficient phototherapy of hypoxic tumors. J Am Chem Soc. 2025;147(9):7360-7376. doi: 10.1021/jacs.4c15036
  2. Nosaka Y, Nosaka AY. Generation and Detection of Reactive Oxygen Species in Photocatalysis. Chem Rev. 2017;117(17):11302-11336. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.7b00161
  3. Shuai C, Li D, Xie H, Yao X, Peng S, Gao C. Programmable lamellar eutectic Zn-2Al-Mg biodegradable implants manufactured by laser powder bed fusion for synergistic strength-ductility and osteogenesis. Adv Healthc Mater. 2025;14(32):2501917. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202501917
  4. Lin Y, Wu S, Li X, et al. Microstructure and performance of Z-scheme photocatalyst of silver phosphate modified by MWCNTs and Cr-doped SrTiO3 for malachite green degradation. Appl Catal B. 2018;227:557-570. doi: 10.1016/j.apcatb.2018.01.054
  5. Li D, Xie H, Gao C, Jiang H, Wang L, Shuai C. Harmonic heterostructured pure Ti fabricated by laser powder bed fusion for excellent wear resistance via strength-plasticity synergy. Opto-Electron Adv. 2025;8(9):250043. doi: 10.29026/oea.2025.250043
  6. Li Z, Zhang T, Fan F, Gao F, Ji H, Yang L. Piezoelectric materials as sonodynamic sensitizers to safely ablate tumors: a case study using black phosphorus. J Phys Chem Lett. 2020;11(4):1228-1238. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b03769
  7. Lu S, Yang B. Carbon dots are shining in the world. SmartMat. 2022;3(2):207. doi: 10.1002/smm2.1132
  8. Gao X, Tan J, Ye T, et al. Ti3C2Tx-enhanced photothermoelectric performance of Bi2Te3 in scaffold for improved osteogenic potential. J Colloid Interface Sci. 2026;702:138794. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2025.138794
  9. Shuai C, Pan G, Wang Z, et al. Bifunctional MoS2@Cu2O heterojunction within scaffold for dual-mode synergistic antibacterial effects. Appl Surf Sci. 2025;686:162154. doi: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2024.162154
  10. Zhang Z, Song S, Ding Y, et al. Ultrasonic enhanced liquid-liquid interfacial reaction for improving the synthesis of Iron-doped carbon dots (Fe-CDs) for achieving superior photocatalytic performance. J Colloid Interface Sci. 2024;669:816-824. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2024.05.070
  11. Kurdyukov DA, Eurov DA, Stovpiaga EY, et al. Novel solid state of silica with ultra-high specific surface area. Mater Today. 2025;88:146-154. doi: 10.1016/j.mattod.2025.06.006
  12. Tang X, Wu Y, Shen Y, et al. Heterogeneous-structure based AuNBs@TiO2 nano-photosensitizers for computed tomography imaging guided NIR-II photodynamic therapy and cancer metastatic prevention. Adv Healthc Mater. 2024;13(18):2304209. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202304209
  13. Lee H, Han G, Na Y, et al. 3D-printed tissue-specific nanospike-based adhesive materials for time-regulated synergistic tumor therapy and tissue regeneration in vivo. Adv Funct Mater. 2024;34(48):2406237. doi: 10.1002/adfm.202406237
  14. Tian B, Liu S, Yu C, et al. A metal-free mesoporous carbon dots/silica hybrid type I photosensitizer with enzyme activity for synergistic treatment of hypoxic tumor. Adv Funct Mater. 2023;33(25):2300818. doi: 10.1002/adfm.202300818
  15. Wang L, Zhang H, Zhou X, Liu Y, Lei B. Preparation, characterization and oxygen sensing properties of luminescent carbon dots assembled mesoporous silica microspheres. J Colloid Interface Sci. 2016;478:256-262. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2016.06.026
  16. Shuai X, Yang Y, Qi F, Yang M, Shuai C. Phase-field modeling of laser sintering degradable biopolymer. Compos Commun. 2025;53:102244. doi: 10.1016/j.coco.2024.102244
  17. Sun B, Peng S, Zhang Z, et al. A bifunctional scaffold achieves a two-stage strategy for repairing tumorous bone defects. Colloids Surf A Physicochem Eng Asp. 2025;726:137996. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfa.2025.137996
  18. Aebisher D, Czech S, Dynarowicz K, et al. Photodynamic therapy: past, current, and future. Int J Mol Sci. 2024;25(20):11325. doi: 10.3390/ijms252011325
  19. Aebisher D, Szpara J, Bartusik-Aebisher D. Advances in medicine: photodynamic therapy. Int J Mol Sci. 2024;25(15):8258. doi: 10.3390/ijms25158258
  20. Blasi M, Pagliara M, Lanza A, et al. Photodynamic Therapy in Ocular Oncology. Biomedicines. 2018;6(1):17. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines6010017
  21. Chou W, Sun T, Peng N, et al. Photodynamic therapy-induced anti-tumor immunity: influence factors and synergistic enhancement strategies. Pharmaceutics. 2023;15(11):2617. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15112617
  22. Cramer GM, Cengel KA, Busch TM. Forging forward in photodynamic therapy. Cancer Res. 2022;82(4):534-536. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.Can-21-4122
  23. Qu J, Zhou W, Zhang W, et al. Tunable time-dependent phosphorescent colors and evolution direction of solvent free grown carbon dots within hollow mesoporous silica for dynamic information encryption. Chem Eng J. 2025;524:169198. doi: 10.1016/j.cej.2025.169198
  24. Cui X, Li X, Peng C, et al. Beyond external light: on-spot light generation or light delivery for highly penetrated photodynamic therapy. ACS Nano. 2023;17(21):20776-20803. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.3c05619
  25. Ren Y, Fan Z. Synthesis of fluorescent probe based on molecularly imprinted polymers on nitrogen-doped carbon dots for determination of tobramycin in milk. Food Chem. 2023;416:135792. doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2023.135792
  26. Hang L, Zhang T, Wen H, et al. Controllable photodynamic performance via an acidic microenvironment based on two dimensional metal-organic frameworks for photodynamic therapy. Nano Res. 2021;14(3):660-666. doi: 10.1007/s12274-020-3093-1
  27. Ye J, Miao B, Xiong Y, et al. 3D printed porous magnesium metal scaffolds with bioactive coating for bone defect repair: enhancing angiogenesis and osteogenesis. J Nanobiotechnology. 2025;23(1):355. doi: 10.1186/s12951-025-03222-3
  28. Li CA, Nan J, Ye Q, et al. Amplifying anti-tumor immune responses via mitochondria-targeting near-infrared photodynamic therapy. Adv Sci. 2025;12(33):2505525. doi: 10.1002/advs.202505525
  29. Liu LG, Sun YM, Liu ZY, et al. Halogenated gallium corroles: DNA interaction and photodynamic antitumor activity. Inorg Chem. 2021;60(4):2234-2245. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c03016
  30. Fan J, Ding Z, Cai Y, et al. Revolutionizing Bone Regeneration: Vascularized Bone Tissue Engineering with Advanced 3D Printing Technology. Aggregate. Published online March 6, 2025. doi: 10.1002/agt2.731
  31. Nompumelelo Simelane NW, Kruger CA, Abrahamse H. Photodynamic diagnosis and photodynamic therapy of colorectal cancer in vitro and in vivo. RSC Adv. 2020;10(68):41560-41576. doi: 10.1039/d0ra08617g
  32. Mesquita MQ, Dias CJ, Neves MGPM, Almeida A, Faustino MAF. Revisiting Current Photoactive Materials for Antimicrobial Photodynamic Therapy. Molecules. 2018;23(10):2424. doi: 10.3390/molecules23102424
  33. Wang H, Ewetse MP, Ma C, et al. The “light knife” for gastric cancer: photodynamic therapy. Pharmaceutics. 2022;15(1):101. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15010101
  34. Korbelik M. Photodynamic therapy supported by antitumor lipids. Pharmaceutics. 2023;15(12):2723. doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics15122723
  35. Sun B, Chen Y, Yu H, et al. Photodynamic PEG-coated ROS sensitive prodrug nanoassemblies for core-shell synergistic chemo-photodynamic therapy. Acta Biomater. 2019;92:219-228. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2019.05.008
  36. Wang GD, Nguyen HT, Chen H, et al. X-Ray Induced Photodynamic Therapy: A Combination of Radiotherapy and Photodynamic Therapy. Theranostics. 2016;6(13):2295-2305.doi: 10.7150/thno.16141
  37. Wang H, Liu H, Guo Y, et al. Photosynthetic microorganisms coupled photodynamic therapy for enhanced antitumor immune effect. Bioact Mater. 2022;12:97-106. doi: 10.1016/j.bioactmat.2021.10.028
  38. Wei F, Rees TW, Liao X, Ji L, Chao H. Oxygen self-sufficient photodynamic therapy. Coord Chem Rev. 2021;432:213714. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2020.213714
  39. Tam LKB, Ng DKP. “Click” for precise photodynamic therapy. Mater Chem Front. 2023;7(16):3184-3193. doi: 10.1039/d3qm00431g
  40. Wu C, Li Y, Cheng Z, et al. Cell-penetrating riboflavin conjugate for antitumor photodynamic therapy. Chin Chem Lett. 2022;33(9):4339-4344. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2022.01.036
  41. Yu Y, Wang H, Zhuang Z, et al. Self-adaptive photodynamic-to-photothermal switch for smart antitumor photoimmunotherapy. ACS Nano. 2024;18(20):13019-13034. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.4c01600
  42. Zheng K, Liu H, Liu X, et al. Tumor targeting chemo- and photodynamic therapy packaged in albumin for enhanced anti-tumor efficacy. Int J Nanomedicine. 2020;15:151-167. doi: 10.2147/ijn.S227144
  43. Yang Y, Ji C, Zhu ZH, et al. Metal–organic frameworks based on fluorogens with aggregation-induced emission for enhanced sonodynamic therapy. Chem Mater. 2024;36(10):4955-4966. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.3c02495
  44. Kazimierczak P, Benko A, Palka K, Canal C, Kolodynska D, Przekora A. Novel synthesis method combining a foaming agent with freeze-drying to obtain hybrid highly macroporous bone scaffolds. J Mater Sci Technol. 2020;43:52-63. doi: 10.1016/j.jmst.2020.01.006
  45. Yuan X, Zhu W, Yang Z, et al. Recent advances in 3D printing of smart scaffolds for bone tissue engineering and regeneration. Adv Mater. 2024;36(34):2403641. doi: 10.1002/adma.202403641
  46. Song P, Hu C, Pei X, et al. Dual modulation of crystallinity and macro-/microstructures of 3D printed porous titanium implants to enhance stability and osseointegration. J Mater Chem B. 2019;7(17):2865-2877. doi: 10.1039/c9tb00093c
  47. Wu K, El Zowalaty AE, Sayin VI, Papagiannakopoulos T. The pleiotropic functions of reactive oxygen species in cancer. Nat Cancer. 2024;5(3):384-399. doi: 10.1038/s43018-024-00738-9
  48. Zhong K, Zhang Z, Cheng W, et al. Photodynamic O2 economizer encapsulated with DNAzyme for enhancing mitochondrial gene-photodynamic therapy. Adv Healthc Mater. 2024;13(5):2302495. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202302495
  49. Chen X, Yong Z, Xiong Y, et al. Hydroxyethyl starch conjugates co-assembled nanoparticles promote photodynamic therapy and antitumor immunity by inhibiting antioxidant systems. Asian J Pharm Sci. 2024;19(5):100950. doi: 10.1016/j.ajps.2024.100950
  50. He S, Wang L, Wu D, et al. Dual-responsive supramolecular photodynamic nanomedicine with activatable immunomodulation for enhanced antitumor therapy. Acta Pharm Sin B. 2024;14(2):765-780. doi: 10.1016/j.apsb.2023.10.006
  51. Li J, Xing Y, Chen X. Intercalating of AIEgens into MoS2 nanosheets to induce crystal phase transform for enhanced photothermal and photodynamic synergetic anti-tumor therapy. Talanta. 2024;271:125677. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2024.125677
  52. Xie X, Zhang S, Liu M, et al. Boosting anti-tumor immunity with boron-based nanosheets via photodynamic-elicited pyroptosis and adjuvant delivery. J Mater Chem B. 2025;13(28):8380-8394. doi: 10.1039/d5tb00801h
  53. Zhang Y, Ying-Kit C, NDKP, Wing-Ping F. Enhancement of innate and adaptive anti-tumor immunity by serum obtained from vascular photodynamic therapy-cured BALB/c mouse. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2021;70(11):3217-3233. doi: 10.1007/s00262-021-02917-4

 

 

Next article in this issue
Share
Back to top
International Journal of Bioprinting, Electronic ISSN: 2424-8002 Print ISSN: 2424-7723, Published by AccScience Publishing
We use cookies on our website to ensure you get the best experience.
Read more about our cookies here
Accept